SILENE INTEGRIPETALA subsp. GREUTERI

Family:- CARYOPHYLLACEAE/Sect. ATOCION

Common Names:- None

Synonyms:- Silene greuteri.

Meaning:- Silene (Gr) A name used by the Greek philosopher Theophrastus for
catchfly.
                  Integripetala (L) With entire petals.
                  Greuteri (L) Possibly for Professor Dr. Werner Rodolfo Greuter,  a
prominent botanist. 
                
General description:- Erect annual.

Stems:-
1) 4-10 cm, usually branched from the base, glandular-pubescent with rather thick,  
    patent or ascending hairs.

Leaves:-
1) Basal broadly spathulate the upper narrowly elliptical.

Flowers:-
1) Inflorescence, lax, few-flowered; flowers often solitary, dichotomously branched.
2) Pedicels, 1/2-3 times as long as the calyx.
3) Calyx, 13-17 mm, narrowly cavate in fruit, reddish, shortly glandular-pubescent.
4) Calyx-teeth, ovate, obtuse.
5) Petal-limb, 4-6 mm. emarginate. pink.

Fruit:-
1) Capsule, 7-8 mm; carpophore 7-8 mm, slender, glabrous.
2) Seeds, 0·6-0·75 mm, reniform; faces slightly concave, striate; back not wide,
    shallowly grooved.

Key features:-
1) Carpophore, 7-8 mm.
2) Inflorescence, ± lax.
3) Petal-limb, 4-6 mm.

Habitat:- Rock ledges, screes, streambanks, sometimes gregarious on gravelly
road embankments. 0-1100 m.

Distribution:- Distributed around the central and eastern Mediterranean coasts,
extending to easternmost Spain, and is particularly common in the Aegean region.
Restricted distribution on Crete confined mainly to two coastal regions.

Flowering time:- Mar to early June.

Photos by:- Christopher Cheiladakis and Wendy Copage
SPECIES DESCRIPTION
 
 
GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED

Ascending:- Curving or pointing upwards.

Calyx:- A collective name for the sepals - the outer whorl of organs in most flowers
Calyx-teeth:- Tip of a calyx lobe or division..
Capsule:- Dry fruit that opens when ripe. splitting from the apex to the base into
separate segments known as valves.
Carpophore:- The fruit bearing stalk  A prolongation of the receptacle or floral axis
bearing the carpels or ovary.

Dichasium-(pl Dichasia):- Cyme with lateral branches on both sides of the main
axis

Elliptic - Elliptical:- Forming an ellipse, widest in the middle and pointed at both
ends

Glabrous:- Without hairs, hairless.
Glandular pubescent:- Hairs tipped with small glands that secrete oil or some
other liquid.

Inflorescence:- The flowering branch or branches, flowers and bracts above the
uppermost leaves on a stem.

Obtuse:- Blunt, not pointed, ending in an angle of between 90 - 180.
Ovate:- Broad and rounded at the base and tapering toward the end.
Ovoid:- Egg-shaped.

Patent:- Spreading
Pedicel:- The stalk of an individual flower.
Petal-limb:- An enlarged upper part of the petals.

Reniform:- Kidney-shaped, shaped like a kidney.

Spathulate Paddle-shaped, oblong with an extended basal part.
Striate:- with parallel longitudinal grooves.

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